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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, ! 



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UNITED STATES OF^ AMERICA. | 






Frice 15 Cents. 



af 



LETTERS 



OF THE 



HON. JOSEPH HOLT 



THE 



HON. EDWARD EYERETT, 



AND 



COMMODORE CHARLES STEWART, 



ON THE 



PRESENT CRISIS 

mi 



fy. 



^>.»;:^-.^x 




PHILADELPHIA : 

WILLIAM S. & ALFRED MARTIEN, 

No. 606 Chestnut Street. 

1861. 



LETTERS 



OF THE 



HON. JOSEPH HOLT, 



THE 



HON. EDAYAED EVERETT, 



AND 



COMMODORE CHARLES STEWART, 



ON THE 



PRESENT CRISIS 



PHILADELPHIA: 

WILLIAM S. k ALFRED MARTIEX, 

No. GOG Chestnut Street. 
18G1. 



^ A 



PREFATORY NOTE. 



Mr. Holt is already well known to the country as the 
Post-Master General, and subsequently, for a few weeks, 
the Secretary of War under President Buchanan. The 
ability and efficiency with which he administered these 
trusts, commanded the general approval of the country; 
while the personal and official corruption by which he was 
surrounded, brought into bolder relief his own spotless 
integrity. It was quite in keeping with the antecedents 
of such a man, that he should write the Letter here re- 
printed. He saw his native State dallying with the 
demon of secession — as Satan beguiled our first mother. 

" Oft he bowed 
His turret-crest, and sleek enamelled neck, 
Fawning; and licked the ground whereon she trod," 

This was not a sight for a true patriot to see unmoved; 
and he addressed the following Letter to the "People of 
Kentucky." The special design of the appeal, is to keep 
that State from sliding into the abyss before her. But 
in aiming at this object, he has discussed the whole sub- 
ject of the pending contest with masterly ability. He 
traces the secession movement to its true sources ; lays 
bare the sordid motives of the Confederate leaders : and 



4 PKEFATORY NOTE. 

shows that the treason which is now makinfir war ap^ainst 
our just and beneficent Government, has been covertly 
plotting the overthrow of the Union for many years. 

His views on these points are confirmed by the other 
Letters hercAvith published. Mr. Everett states it, as 
of his personal knowledge, that "leading Southern poli- 
ticians had for thirty years been resolved to break up 
the Union," whenever the sceptre departed from their 
hands. And the venerable Commodore Stewart traces 
the roots of this foul scheme back as far as 1812. These 
testimonies, in connection with the recent letter of Mr. 
Russell to the London Times^ seem to justify the pre- 
sumption, that the State of South Carolina was never 
loyal to the Union ; that, however it may have been with 
the mass of her people, she had nursed ah initio a nest 
of traitors, who have persistently cherished the purpose 
to destroy the Government whenever they could no longer 
control it. 

These developments are of great moment in their bear- 
ing upon the present conflict ; and they will not be lost 
sight of in the future adjustment of this quarrel. 

The three Letters contained in this pamphlet are of 
too much value to be consigned merely to the fugitive 
columns of a newspaper. The Publisher feels that he is 
doing the country a good service, by presenting them in 
a form suitable for preservation and reference. Without 
specifying other topics which are worthy of notice, he 
may be allowed to direct particular attention to the para- 
graph of Mr. Everett's admirable Letter (pp. 38, 39) on 
the plausible claim of the South, "simply to be let alone." 

THiLADELrHiA, Junc 2o, 1861. 



LETTER OF THE HON. J. HOLT, 



Washington, Friday, May 31, 1861. 

J. F. Speed, Esq. 

My Dear iS^r— The recent over-whelming vote in 
favour of the Union in Kentucky has afforded unspeaka- 
ble gratification to all true men throughout the country. 
That vote indicates that the people of that gallant State 
have been neither seduced by the arts nor terrified by 
the menaces of the revolutionists in their midst, and that 
it is their fixed purpose to remain faithful to a Govern- 
ment which, for nearly seventy years, has remained faith- 
ful to them. Still it cannot be denied that there is in the 
bosom of that State a band of agitators, who, though few 
in number, are yet powerful from the public confidence 
they have enjoyed, and who have been, and doubtless will 
continue to be, unceasing in their endeavour to force 
Kentucky to unite her fortunes with those of the rebel 
Confederacy of the South. In view of this and of the 
well-known fact that several of the seceded States have 
by fraud and violence been driven to occupy their present 
false and fatal position, I cannot, even with the encour- 
agement of her late vote before me, look upon the 

A* 



6 LETTER OF THE HON J. HOLT 

political future of our native State without a painful 
solicitude. Never have the safety and honour of her 
people required the exercise of so much vigilance and of 
so much courage on their part. If true to themselves, 
the Stars and Stripes, which, like angels' wings, have so 
long guarded their homes from every oppression, will still 
be theirs; but if, chasing the dreams of men's ambition, 
they shall prove false, the blackness of darkness can but 
faintly predict the gloom that awaits them. The Legisla- 
ture, it seems, has determined by resolution that the 
State, pending the present unhappy war, shall occupy 
neutral ground. / must sai/, in all frankness, and with- 
out desiring to reflect upon the course or sentiments of 
any, that, in this struggle for the existence of our Govern- 
ment, I can neither practise nor profess nor feel neutral- 
ity. I tvould as soon think of being neutral in a contest 
between an officer of justice and an incendiary arrested in 
an attempt to fire the dtuelling over my head; for the 
Government ivhose overthrow is sought, is for me the shelter 
not only of home, kindred and friends, but of every earthly 
blessing whicli I can hope to enjoy on this side of the grave. 
If, however, from a natural horror of fratricidal strife, or 
from her intimate social and business relations with the 
South, Kentucky shall determine to maintain the neutral 
attitude assumed for her by her Legislature, her position 
will still be an honourable one, though falling far short of 
that full measure of loyalty which her history has so con- 
stantly illustrated. Her Executive, ignoring, as I am 
happy to believe, alike the popular and legislative senti- 
ment of the State, has, by proclamation, forbidden the 
Government of the United States from marching troops 
across her territory. This is in no sense a neutral step, 



ON THE J'RESENT CKJ8IS. I 

but one of aggressive hostility. The troops of the Federal 
Government have as clear a constitutional right to pass 
over the soil of Kentucky as they have to march along 
the streets of Washington ; and could this prohibition be 
effective, it would not only be a violation of the funda- 
mental law, but would, in all its tendencies, be directly in 
advancement of the revolution, and might, in an emer- 
gency easily imagined, compromise the highest national 
interests. I was rejoiced that the Legislature so promptly 
refused to endorse this proclamation as expressive of the 
true policy of the State. But I turn away from even 
this to the ballot-box, and find an abounding consolation 
in the conviction it inspires, that the popular heart of 
Kentucky, in its devotion to the Union, is far in advance 
alike of legislative resolve and of Executive proclamation. 

But as it is well understood that the late popular 
demonstration has rather scotched than killed rebellion 
in Kentucky, I propose inquiring, as briefly as practica- 
ble, whether, in the recent action or present declared 
policy of the Administration, or in the history of the 
pending revolution, or in the objects it seeks to accom- 
plish, or in the results which must follow from it, if suc- 
cessful, there can be discovered any reasons why that 
State should sever the ties that unite her with a Confede- 
racy in whose councils and upon whose battle-fields she 
has won so much fame, and under whose protection she 
has enjoyed so much prosperity. 

For more than a month after the inauguration of Presi- 
dent Lincoln, the manifestations seemed unequivocal 
that his Administration would seek a peaceful solution of 
our unhappy political troubles, and would look to time 
and amendments to the Federal Constitution, adopted in 



8 LETTKR OF THE HON. J. HOLT 

accordance with its provisions, to bring back the revolted 
States to their allegiance. So marked was the effect of 
these manifestations in tranquilizing the Border States 
and in reassuring their loyalty, that the conspirators who- 
had set this revolution on foot took the alarm. WJiile 
affecting to despise these States as not sufficient!?/ intensi- 
fied in their devotion to African servitude, they Jcneiv they 
could never succeed in their treasonable enterprise icithout 
their support. Hence it ivas resolved to precipitate a 
collision of arms ivith the Federal authorities, in the hope 
that under the panic and exasperation incident to the 
commencement of a civil war, the Border States, following 
the natural bent of their sympathies, would array them- 
selves against the Government. Fort Sumter, occupied 
by a feeble garrison, and girdled by powerful if not 
impregnable batteries, afforded convenient means for 
accompli«hing their purpose, and for testing also their 
favorite theory, that blood was needed to cement the new 
Confederacy. Its provisions were exhausted, and the 
request made by the President, in the interests of peace 
and humanity, for the privilege of replenishing its stores, 
had been refused. The Confederate authorities were 
aware — for so the gallant commander of the fort had 
declared to them — that in two days a capitulation from 
starvation must take pUce. A peaceful surrender, how- 
ever, would not have subserved their aims. They sought 
the clash of arms and the effusion of blood as an instru- 
mentality for impressing the Border States, and they 
sought the humiliation of the Government and the dis- 
honour of its flag as a means of giving prestige to their 
own cause. The result is known. Without the slightest 
provocation, a heavy cannonade was opened upon the 



ON THE PRESENT CRISIS. 9 

fort, and borne by its helpless garrison for hours without 
reply; and when, in the progress of the bombardment, 
the fortification became wrapped in flames, the besieging 
batteries, in violation of the usages of civilized warfare, 
instead of relaxing or suspending, redoubled their fires. 
A more tvanton or wicked ivar was never commenced on 
any G-overnment wliose history has been written. Cotem- 
porary with and following the fall of Sumter, the siege 
of Fort Pickens was and still is actively pressed; the 
property of the United States Government continued to 
be seized wherever found, and its troops, by fraud or 
force, captured in the State of Texas, in violation of a 
solemn compact with its authorities that they should be 
permitted to embark without molestation. This was the 
requital which the Lone Star State made to brave men, 
who, through long years of peril and privation, had 
guarded its frontiers against the incursions of the savages. 
In the midst of the most active and extended warlike 
preparations in the South, the announcement was made 
by the Secretary of War of the seceded States, and 
echoed with taunts and insolent bravadoes by the South- 
ern press, that Washington City was to be invaded and 
captured, and that the flag of the Confederate States 
would soon float over the dome of its capitol. Soon 
thereafter there followed an invitation to all the world — 
embracing necessarily the outcasts and desperadoes of 
every sea — to accept letters of marque and reprisal, to 
prey upon the rich and unprotected commerce of the 
United States. 

In view of these events and threatenings, what was the 
duty of the Chief Magistrate of the Republic? He might 
have taken counsel of the revolutionists and trembled 



10 



LETTER or THE HON. J. HOLT 



under their menaces; lie might, upon the fall of Sumter, 
have directed that Fort Pickens should be surrendered 
without firing a gun in its defence, and proceeding yet 
further, and meeting fully the requirements of the "let 
us alone" policy insisted on in the South, he might have 
ordered that the Stars and Stripes should be laid in the 
dust in the presence of every bit of rebel bunting that 
might appear. But he did none of these things^ nor could 
he have done them without forfeiting his oath and hetraij- 
ing the most sublime trust that has ever been confided to 
the hands of man. With a heroic fidelity to his consti- 
tutional obligations, feeling justly that these obligations 
charged him with the protection of the Republic and its 
Capital against the assaults alike of foreign and domestic 
enemies, he threw himself on the loyalty of the country for 
support in the struggle upon which he was about to enter, 
and nobly has that appeal been responded to. States 
containing an aggregate population of nineteen millions 
have ansAvered to the appeal as with the voice of one 
man, offering soldiers without number, and treasure with- 
out limitation for the service of the Government. In these 
States, fifteen hundred thousand freemen cast their votes 
in favour of candidates supporting the rights of the South, 
at the last Presidential election, and yet everywhere, 
alike in popular assembles and upon the tented field, this 
million and a half of voters are found yielding to none in 
the zeal with which they rally to their country's flag. 
They are not less the friends of the South than before ; 
but they realize that the question now presented is not 
one of administrative policy, or of the claims of the North, 
the South, the East, or the West; but is, simply, whether 
nineteen millions of people shall tamely and ignobly per- 



ON THE PRESENT CRISIS. 



11 



mit five or six millions to overtlirow and destroy institu- 
tions which are the common property, and have been the 
common blessings and glory of all. The great thorough- 
fares of the North, the East, and the West, are luminous 
with the banners and glistening with the bayonets of 
citizen soldiers marching to the Capital, or to the other 
points of rendevouz ; but they come in no hostile spirit to 
tlie South. If called to press her soil, they will not ruffle 
a flower of her gardens, nor a blade of grass of her fields 
in unkindness. Wo excesses tuill mark the footsteps of the 
armies af the Repuhlic ; no histitution of the States ivill 
he invaded or tampered with, no rights of persons or of 
joroperty ivill he violated. The knoim purposes of the 
Administration, and the high character of the troops em- 
ployed, alike guarantee the truthfulness of this statement. 
AVhen an insurrection was apprehended a few weeks 
since in Maryland, the Massachusetts' Regiment at once 
offered their services to suppress it. These volunteers 
have been denounced by the Press of the South as 
''knaves and vagrants," "the dregs and offscourings of 
the populace," who would "rather filch a handkerchief 
than fight an enemy in manly combat;" yet we know 
here that their discipline and bearing are most admirable, 
and, I presume, it may be safely affirmed, that a larger 
amount of social position, culture, fortune, and elevation 
of character, has never been found in so large an army in 
any age or country. If they go to the South, it ivill he 
as friends and protectors, to relieve the Union sentiment 
of the seceded States from the cruel domination hy tuhich 
it is oppressed and silenced, to unfurl the Stars and 
Stripes in the midst of those who long to look upon them, 
and to restore the flag that hears them to the forts and 



12 LETTER 01- THE HON. J. HOLT 

arsenals from whicli disloyal hands have torn it. Their 
mission tvill he one of peace, unless tvicJced and blood- 
thirsty men shall unsheath the sword across their pathivay. 

It is in vain for the revolutionists to exclaim that this 
is ''' subjugation." It is so, jjrecisely in the sense in ivhich 
you and I and all laiv-abiding citizens are subjugated. 
The people of the South are our brethren, and while "\ve 
obey the laws enacted by our joint authority, and keep a 
compact to Avhich we all are parties, we only ask that 
they shall be required to do the same. We believe that 
their safety demands this; we know that ours does. We 
impose no burden which we ourselves do not bear; we 
claim no privilege or blessing which our brethren of the 
South shall not equally share. Their country is our 
country, and ours is theirs; and that unity both of 
country and of government which the providence of God 
and the compacts of men have created we could not our- 
selves, without self immolation, destro}?", nor can we per- 
mit it to be destroyed by others. 

Equally vain is it for them to declare that they only 
w^ish "to be let alone," and that, in establishing the in- 
dependence of the seceded States, they do those which 
remain in the old Confederacy no harm. The Free States, 
if allowed the opportunity of doing so, will undoubtedly 
concede every guarantee needed to afford complete pro- 
tection to the institutions of the South, and to furnish 
assurances of her perfect equality in the Union ; but all 
such guarantees and assurances are now openly spurned, 
and the only Southern right now insisted on is that of 
dismembering the Republic. It is perfectly certain, that 
in the attempted exercise of this right, neither States nor 
statesmen will be " let alone." Should a ruffian meet me 



ON THE PRESENT CRISIS. 18 

in the streets, and seek, Avith his axe, to hew an arm and 
a leg from my body, I would not the less resist him be- 
cause, as a dishonoured and helpless trunk, I might per- 
chance survive the mutilation. It is easy to perceive what 
fatal results to the old Confederacy would follow, should 
the blow now struck at its integrity ultimately triumph. 
We can well understand what degradation it would bring 
to it abroad, and what weakness at home ; what exhaus- 
tion from incessant war and standing armies, and from 
the erection of fortifications along the thousands of miles 
of new frontiers ; what embarrassments to commerce from 
having its natural channels encumbered or cut oft'; what 
elements of disintregation and revolution would be intro- 
duced from the pernicious example; and, above all, what 
humiliation would cover the whole American people for 
having failed in their great mission to demonstrate before 
the world the capacity of our race for self-government. 

While afar more fearful re^ponsihility has fallen upon 
President Lincoln than upon any of his predecessors, if 
must he admitted that he has met it with promptitude and 
fearlessness. Cicero, in one of his orations against 
Cataline, speaking of the credit due himself for having 
suppressed the conspiracy of that arch-traitor, said, " If 
the glory of him who founded Rome was great, how much 
greater should be that of him who had saved it from over- 
throw, after it had grown to be mistress of the world ?" So 
may it be said of the glory of that statesman or chieftain 
who shall snatch this Republic from the vortex of revolu- 
tion, now that it has expanded from ocean to ocean, — has 
become the admiration of the world, and has rendered the 
fountains of the lives of thirty millions of people fountains 
of happiness. 



l-i LETTER OF THE HON. ^T. HOLT 

The vigorous measures adopted for the safety of Wash- 
ington, and the Government itself, may seem open to 
criticism, in some of their details, to those who have yet 
to learn that not only has war, like peace, its laws, but 
that it has also its privileges and its duties. Whatever 
of severity, or even of irregularity, may have arisen, will 
find its justification in the pressure of the terrible neces- 
sity under which the Administration has been called to 
act. AVhen a man feels the poignard of the destroyer at 
his bosom, he is not likely to consult tlie law-books as to 
the mode or measure of his rights of self-defence. What 
is true of individuals is in this respect equally true of 
governments. The man who thinks he has become dis- 
loyal because of lohat the Administration has done, loill 
probably discover, after a close examination, that he was 
disloyrd be-^ore. But for what has been done, Washington 
might ere this have been a smouldering heap of ruins. 

They have noted the course of public aff'airs to little 
advantage who suppose that the election of Lincoln was 
the real ground of the revolutionary outbreak that has 
occurred. The roots of the revolution may be traced back 
for more than a quarter of a century, and an unholy lust 
for power is the soil out of which it sprang. A prominent 
member of the band of agitators declared in one of his 
speeches at Charleston, last November or December, that 
they had been occupied for thirty years in the work of 
severing South Carolina from the Union. When General 
Jackson crushed nullification, he said it would revive 
again under the form of the slavery agitation, and we have 
lived to see his prediction verified. Indeed, that agita- 
tion, during the last fifteen or twenty years, has been 
almost the entire stock in trade of Southern politicians. 



ON THE PRESENT CP.IiSlS. 15 

The Southern people, known to be as generous in their 
impulses as they are chivalric, were not wrought into a 
frenzj of passion by the intemperate words of a few fana- 
tical abolitionists ; for these words, if left to themselves, 
would have fallen to the ground as pebbjes into the sea, 
and would have been heard of no more. But it was the 
echo of those words, repeated with exaggerations for the 
thousandth time by Southern politicians, in the halls of 
Congress, and in the deliberative and popular assemblies, 
and through the Press of the South, that produced the 
exasperation which has proved so potent a lever in the 
hands of the conspirators. The cloud was fully charged, 
and the juggling revolutionists who held the wires, and 
could at will direct its lightnings, appeared at Charleston, 
broke up the Democratic Convention assembled to nomi- 
nate a candidate for the Presidency, and thus secured the 
election of Mr. Lincoln. Having thus rendered this cer- 
tain, they at once set to work to bring the popular mind 
of the South to the point of determining in advance that 
the election of a Republican President would be ijer se 
cause for a dissolution of the Union. They were but too 
successful, and to this result the inaction and indecision 
of the Border States deplorably contributed. When the 
election of Mr. Lincoln was announced, there was rejoic- 
ing in the streets of Charleston, and doubtless at other 
points in the South ; for it was believed by the conspira- 
tors that this had brought a tide in the current of their 
machinations which would bear them on to victory. The 
drama of secession was now open, and State after State 
rapidly rushed out of the Union, and their members with- 
drew from Congress. The revolution was pressed on with 
this hot haste in order that no time should be allowed for 



16 LETTER OF THE HOX. J. HOLT 

reaction in the Northern mind, or for any adjustment of 
the Slavery issues by the action of Congress or of the 
State Legislatures. Had the Southern members con- 
tinued in their seats, a satisfactory compromise would, no 
doubt, have been arranged and passed before the adjourn- 
ment of Congress. As it was, after their retirement, and 
after Congress had become Republican, an amendment to 
the Constitution was adopted by a two-thirds vote, declar- 
ing that Congress should never interfere with Slavery in 
the States, and declaring, further, that this amendment 
should be irrevocable. Thus we falsified the clamor so 
long and so insidiously rung in the ears of the Southern 
people, that the abolition of Slavery in the States was the 
ultimate aim of the Republican party. But even this 
amendment, and all others which may be needed to furnish 
the guarantees demanded, are now defeated by the seces- 
sion of eleven States, which, claiming to be out of the 
Union, w411 refuse to vote upon, and, in effect, will vote 
against, any proposals to modify the Federal Constitution. 
There are now thirty-four States in the Confederacy, 
three-fourths of which, being twenty-six, must concur in 
the adoption of any amendment before it can become a 
part of the Constitution; but the secession of eleven States 
leaves but twenty-three whose vote can possibly be secured, 
which is less than the constitutional number. 

Thus we have the extraordinary and discreditable spec- 
tacle of a revolution made by certain States professedly 
on the ground that guarantees for the safety of their 
institutions are denied them, and, at the same time, in- 
stead of co-operating with their sister States in obtaining 
these guarantees, they designedly assume a hostile atti- 
tude, and thereby render it constitutionally impossible to 



ON THE niESENT CRISIS. 



secure them. This profound dissimulation shows that it 
was not the safety of the South hut its severance from 
the Confederacy, which was sought from the beginning. 
Cotemporary with, and in some cases preceding, these 
acts of secession, the greatest outrages were committed 
upon the Government of the United States by the States 
engaged in them. Its forts, arsenals, arms, barracks, 
custom-houses, post-offices, moneys, and, indeed, every 
species of its property within the limits of these States, 
were seized and appropriated, down to the very hospital 
stores for the sick soldiers. More than half a million of 
dollars was plundered from the mint at New Orleans. 
United States vessels were received from the defiled hands 
of their officers in command, and, as if in the hope of 
consecrating official treachery as one of the public virtues 
of the age, the surrender of an entire military depart- 
ment by a General, to the keeping of whose honour it 
had been confided, was deemed worthy of the commenda- 
tion and thanks of the Conventions of several States. 
All these lawless proceedings were well understood to 
have been prompted and directed by men occupying seats 
in the Capitol, some of whom w^ere frank enough to de- 
clare that they could not and would not, though in a 
minority, live under a Government w^hich they could not 
control. In this declaration is found the key which un- 
locks the whole of the complicated machinery of this 
revolution. The profligate ambition of public men in all 
ages and lands has been the rock on which republics have 
been split. Such men have arisen in our midst — men 
who, because unable permanently to grasp the helm of 
the ship, are willing to destroy it in the hope to command 
some one of the rafts that may float away from the wreck. 



B^ 



18 LFTTER OF THE HON. J. HOLT 

The effect is to degrade us to a level with the military 
bandits of Mexico and South America, who, "vvhen beaten 
at an election, fly to arms, and seek to master by the 
sword what they have been unable to control by the bal- 
lot-box. 

The atrocious acts enumerated were acts of war, and 
might all have been treated as such by the late Adminis- 
tration ; but the President patriotically cultivated peace — 
how anxiously and how patiently the country well knows. 
While, however, the revolutionary leaders greeted him 
with all hails to his face, they did not the less diligently 
continue to ivhet their swords behind his hack. Immense 
military 'preparations were inade, so that when the mo- 
ment for striking at the Government of the United States 
arrived, the revolutionary States leaped into the contest 
clad in full armour. 

As if nothing should be wanting to darken this page of 
history, the seceded States have already entered upon the 
work of confiscating the debts due from their citizens to 
the North and Northwest. The millions thus gained will 
doubtless prove a pleasant substitute for those guarantees 
now so scornfully rejected. To these confiscations will 
probably succeed soon those of lands and negroes owned 
by citizens of loyal States : and, indeed, the apprehen- 
sion of this step is already sadly disturbing the fidelity 
of non-resident proprietors. Fortunately, however, in- 
firmity of faith, springing from such a cause, is not likely 
to be contagious. The war bcgu7i is being prosecuted by 
the Confederate States in a temper as fierce and unspar- 
ing as that which characteynzes conflicts betiveen the most 
hostile nations. Letters of marque and reprisal are being 
granted to all who s^ek them, so that our coasts will soon 



ON THE PRESENT CKISLS. 19 

swarm with these piratical cruisers, as the President has 
properly denounced them. Every buccaneer who desires 
to rob American commerce upon the ocean, can, for the 
asking, obtain a warrant to do so, in the name of the new 
republic. To crown all, large bodies of Indians have 
been mustered into the service of the revolutionary States, 
and are now conspicuous in the ranks of the Southern 
army. A leading North Carolina journal, noting their 
stalwart frames and unerring markmanship, observes, 
with an exultation positively fiendish, that they are armed, 
not only with the rifle, but also with the scalping knife 
and tomahawk. 

Is Kentucky willing to link her name in history with 
the excesses and crimes which have sullied this revolution 
at every step of its progress? Can she soil her pure 
hands with its booty ? She possesses the noblest heritage 
that God has granted to his children ; is she prepared to 
barter it away for that miserable mess of pottage which 
the gratification of the unholy ambition of her public 
men would bring to her lips? Can she, without laying 
her face in the very dust for shame, become a participant 
in the spoliation of the commerce of her neighbours and 
friends, by contributing her star, hitherto so stainless in 
its glory, to light the corsair on his way? Has the war- 
whoop, which used to startle the sleep of our frontiers, so 
died away in her ears that she is willing to take the red- 
handed savage to her bosom as the champion of her rights 
and the representative of her spirit? Must she not first 
forget her own heroic sons who perished, butchered and 
scalped, upon the disastrous field of Raisin ? 

The object of the revolution, as avowed by all who are 
pressing it forAvard, is the permanent dismemberment of the 



20 LCTTEIl 0¥ THE IION. ,7. iiOi.T 

Confederacj. The dream of reconstruction — used during 
the last winter as a lure to draw the hesitating or the 
hopeful into the movement — has been formally abandoned. 
If Kentucky separates herself from the Union, it must 
be upon the basis that the separation is to be final and 
eternal. Is there aught in the organization or adminis- 
tration of the Government of the United States to justify, 
on her part, an act so solemn and so perilous? Could 
the wisest of her lawyers, if called upon, find material 
for an indictment in any or in all the pages of the history 
of the Republic ? Could the most leprous-lipped of its 
calumniators point to a single State or Territory, or com- 
munity or citizen, that it has wronged or oppressed ? It 
would be impossible. So fa?' as the Slave States arc 
concerned, their protection has been complete, and if it 
has not been, it has been the fault of their statesmen, who 
have had the control of the Government since its founda- 
tion. 

The census returns show that during the year 18G0 the 
Fugitive Slave Law was executed more faithfully and 
successfully than it had been during the preceding ten 
years. Since the installation of President Lincoln, not 
a case has arisen in -wdiich the fugitive has not been re- 
turned, and that, too, without any opposition from the 
people. Indeed, the fidelity with which it was understood 
to be the policy of the Administration to enforce the pro- 
visions of this law, has caused a perfect panic among the 
runaway slaves in the Free States, and they have been 
escaping in multitudes to Canada, unpursued and unre- 
claimed by their masters. Is there found in this, reason 
for a dissolution of the Union? 

That the Slave States are not recognized as equals in 



ON THE PRESENT CRISIS. 21 

the Confederacy, has for several years been tlie cry of 
demagogues and conspirators. But what is the truth? 
Not only according to the theory, but the actual practice 
of the Government, the Slave States have ever been, and 
still are, in all respects, the peers of the Free. Of the 
fourteen Presidents who have been elected, seven were 
citizens of Slave States, and of the seven remaining, three 
represented Southern principles, and received the votes 
of the Southern people; so that, in our whole history, 
but four Presidents have been chosen who can be claimed 
as the special champions of the policy and principles of 
the Free States, and even these so only in a modified 
sense. Does this look as if the South had ever been de- 
prived of her equal share of the honours and powers of the 
Government? The Supreme Court has decided that the 
citizens of the Slave States can, at will, take their slaves 
into all the Territories of the United States; and this 
decision, which has never been resisted or interfered with 
in a single case, is the law of the land, and the whole 
power of the Government is pledged to enforce it. That 
it will be loyally enforced by the present Administration 
I entertain no doubt. A Republican Congress, at the 
late session, organized three new Territories, and in the 
organic law of neither was there introduced, or attempted 
to be introduced, the slightest restriction upon the rights 
of the Southern emigrant to bring his slaves with him. 
At this moment, therefore, and I state it without qualifica- 
tion, there is not a Territory belonging to the United 
States into which the Southern people may not introduce 
their slaves at pleasure, and enjoy there complete protec- 
tion. Kentucky should consider this great and undeniable 
fact, before which all the frothy rant of demagogues and 



22 LETTER OF THE HON. J. HOLT 

disunionists must disappear as a bank of fog before the 
v/ind. Eut were it otherwise, and did a defect exist in 
our organic law, or in the practical administration of the 
Government, in reference to the rights of Southern slave- 
holders in the Territories, still the question would be a 
mere abstraction, since the laws of climate forbid the 
establishment of slavery in such a latitude ; and to destroy 
such institutions as ours for such a cause, instead of 
patiently trying to remove it, would be a little short of 
national insanity. It would be to burn the house down 
over our heads merely because there is a leak in the roof; 
to scuttle the ship in mid-ocean merely because there is a 
difference of opinion among the crew^ as to the point of 
the com.pass to which the vessel should be steered; it 
would be, in fact, to apply the knife to the throat instead 
of to the cancer of the patient. 

But what remains? Though, say the Disunionists, the 
Fugitive Slave Law is honestly enforced, and though, 
under the shelter of the Supreme Court, we can take our 
slaves into the Territories, yet the Northern people will 
persist in discussing the institution of Slavery, and there- 
fore we will break up the Government. It is true that 
Slavery has been very intemperately discussed in tlie 
North, and it is equally true that until we have an Asiatic 
despotism, crushing out all freedom of speech and of the 
press, this discussion will probably continue. In this age 
and country all institutions, human and divine, are dis- 
cussed, and so they ought to be; and all that cannot bear 
discussion must go to the wall, where they ought to go. 
It is not pretended, however, that the discussion of 
Slavery, which has been continued in our country for 
more than forty years, has in any manner disturbed or 



ON THE I'RESExXT CRISIS. 23 

weakened tlie foundation of the institution. On tlie con- 
trary, we learn from tlie press of the seceded States that 
their slaves were never more tranquil or obedient. There 
are zealots — happily few in number — both North and 
South, whose language upon this question is alike ex- 
travagant and alike deserving our condemnation. Those 
wdio assert that Slavery should be extirpated by the 
sword, and those who maintain that the great mission of 
the white man upon earth is to enslave the black, are not 
far apart in the folly and atrocity of their sentiments. 

Before proceeding further, Kentucky should measure 
well the depth of the gulf she is approaching, and look 
well to the feet of her guides. Before forsaking a Union 
in which her people have enjoyed such uninterrupted and 
such boundless prosperity, she should ask herself, not 
once, but many times. Why do I go, and where am I 
going? In view of what has been said, it would be diffi- 
cult to answer the first branch of the inquiry, but to 
answer the second part is patent to all, as are the conse- 
quences which would follow the movement. In giving 
her great material and moral resources to the support of 
the Southern Confederacy, Kentucky might prolong the 
desolating struggle that rebellious States are making to 
overthrow a Government v/hich they have only known in 
its blessings ; but the triumph of the Government would 
nevertheless be certain in the end. She 7V02iId abandon a 
Government strong and able to j^^oteot her for one that is 
tveak, and that contai7is, in the very elements of its life, 
the seeds of distraction and early dissolution. She tvould 
adopts as the laiv of her existence, the right of secession — 
a right ivhich has no foundation in jurisprudence, or logic, 
or in our political history ; vjhich Madison^ the father of 



24 LETTER or THE HON. J. HOLT 

the Federal Constitiction, denounced : tvMch has been de- 
nounced by 7nost of the /States a7id prominent statesmen 
now insisting upon its exercise; ivhich^ in introduciyig a 
principle of indefinite disintegration, cuts up all confede- 
rate governments by the roots, and gives them over a prey 
to the caprices, and 2^<^issio7is, and transient interests of 
their members, as autumnal leaves are given to the ivinds 
which bloiv upon them. In 1814, the Richmond Enquirer, 
then, as now, the organ of public opinion in the South, 
pronounced secession to be treason, and nothing else, and 
such -was then the doctrine of Southern statesmen. What 
was true then is equally true now. The prevalence of 
this pernicious heresy is mainly the fruit of that farce 
called "State Rights," which demagogues have been so 
long playing under tragic mask, and Avhich has done more 
than all things else to unsettle the foundations of the 
Republic, by estranging the people from the Federal 
Government, as one to be distrusted and resisted, instead 
of being, what it is, emphatically their own creation, at 
all times obedient to their will, and in its ministrations 
the grandest reflex of the greatness and beneficence of 
popular power that has ever ennobled the history of our 
race. Said Mr. Clay: "I owe a supreme allegiance to 
the General Government, and to my State a subordinate 
one." And this terse language disposes of the whole 
controversy which has arisen out of the secession move- 
ment in regard to the allegiance of the citizen. As the 
power of the States and Federal Government are in 
perfect harmony with each other, so there can be no con- 
flict between the allegiance due to them; each, while 
acting within the sphere of its constitutional authority, is 
entitled to be obeyed; but when a State, throwing off all 



ON THE PRESENT CRISIS. 26 

constitutional restraints, seeks to destroy the General 
Government, to say that its citizens are bound to follow 
it in this career of crime, and discard the Supreme allegi- 
ence they owe to the Government assailed, is one of the 
shallowest and most dangerous fallacies that has ever 
gained credence among men. 

Kentucky, occupying a central position in the Union, 
is now protected from the scourge of foreign war, however 
much its ravages may waste the towns and cities upon our 
coasts, or the commerce upon our seas; but as a member 
of the Southern Confederacy, she would be a frontier 
State, and necessarily the victim of those border feuds and 
conflicts which have become proverbial in history alike for 
their fierceness and frequency. The people of the South 
now sleep quietly in their beds, while there is not a home 
in infatuated and misguided Virginia that is not filled with 
the alarms and oppressed by the terrors of war. In the 
fate of the ancient Commonwealth, dragged to the altar 
of sacrifice by those who should have stood between her 
bosom and every foe, Kentucky may read her own.- lio 
ivonder, therefore, that she has been so coaxingly besought to 
unite her fortunes with those of the South, and to lag down 
the bodies of her chivalric sons as a breastwork, behind 
which the Southern people mag be sheltered. Even as 
attached to the Southern Confederacy, she would be weak 
for all the purposes of self-protection, as compared Avith 
her present position. But amid the mutations incident to 
such a helpless and disintegrating league, Kentucky would 
probably soon find herself adhering to a mere fragment 
of the Confederacy, or it may be standing entirely alone, 
in the presence of tiers of Free States, with populations 
exceeding, by many millions, her own. Feeble States, 
c 



2f) r/ETTER OF THE HON. J. HOLT 

thus separated from powerful and warlike neighbours by 
ideal boundaries, or by fears as easily traversed as rivu- 
lets, are as insects that feed upon the lion's lip — liable at 
every moment to be crushed. The recorded doom of 
multitudes of such, has left us a warning too solemn and 
impressive to be disregarded. 

Kentucky now scarcely feels the contribution she makes 
to support the Government of the United States, but as a 
member of the Southern Confederacy, of whose policy 
free trade w^ill be a cardinal principle, she will be burdened 
with direct taxation to the amount of double, or, it may 
be, triple or quadruple that which she now pays into her 
own treasury. Superadded to this will be required from 
her her share of those vast outlays necessary for the 
creation of a navy, the erection of forts and custom- 
houses along a frontier of several thousand miles ; and for 
the maintenance of that large standing army which will 
be indispensable at once for her safety, and for imparting 
to the new government that strong military character 
Avhich, it has been openly avowed, the peculiar institu- 
tions of the South will inexorably demand. 

Kentucky now enjoys for her peculiar institution the 
protection of the Fugitive Slave law, loyally enforced by 
the Government, and it is this law, effective in its power 
of recapture, but infinitely more potent in its moral 
agency in preventing the escape of slaves, that alone 
saves that institution in the Border States from utter 
extinction. She cannot carry this law with her into the 
new Confederacy. She will, virtually, have Canada 
brought to her doors in the form of Free States, whose 
population, relieved of all moral and constitutional obli- 
gations to deliver up fugitive slaves, will stand, with open 



ON THE PRESENT CRISIS. 27 

arms, inviting and welcoming them, and defending them, 
if need be, at the point of the bayonet. Under such 
influences, slavery will perish rapidly away in Kentucky, 
as a ball of snow would melt in a summer's sun. 

Kentucky, in her soul, abhors the African slave-trade, 
and turns away with unspeakable horror and loathing 
from the red altars of King Dahomey. But altiiough this 
traffic has been temporarili/ interdicted by the seceded 
States, it is well understood that this step has been taken 
as a mere measure of policy for the p>urp)ose of impressing 
the Border States, and of conciliating the European 
powers. The idtimate legalization of this trade, by a 
Republic professing to he based upon African servitude, 
must follow as certainly as does the conclusion from the 
premises of a mathematical proposition. Is Kentucky 
prepared to see the hand upon the dial-plate of her civili- 
zation rudely thrust back a century, and to stand before 
the world the confessed champion of the African Slave- 
hunter? Is she, with her unsullied fame, ready to become 
a pander to the rapacity of the African Slave-trader, who 
burdens the very winds of the sea with the moans of the 
wretched captives whose limbs he has loaded with chains, 
and whose hearts he has broken? I do not, I cannot, 
believe it. 

For this catalogue of what Kentucky must suffer in 
abandoning her present honoured and secure position, 
and becoming a member of the Southern Confederacy, 
what will be her indemnity? Nothing, absolutely nothing. 
The ill-woveji ambition of some of her sons may possibly 
reach the Presidency of the new Republic; that is all. 
Alas ! alas ! for that dream of the Presidency of a South- 



28 LETTER UE THE llON. J. UOLT 

ern Republic, which has disturbed so many pillows in the 
South, and perhaps some in the West, also, and whose 
lurid light, like a demon's torch, is leading a nation to 
perdition ! 

The clamour that in insisting upon the South obeying 
the laws, the great principle that all popular governments 
rest upon the consent of the governed is violated, should 
not receive a moment's considei'ation. Popular govern- 
ment does, indeed, rest upon the consent of the governed, 
but it is upon the consent, not of all, hut of a majority of 
the governed. Criminals are every day punished, and 
made to obey the laws, certainly against their will, and 
no man supposes that the principle referred to is thereby 
invaded. A bill passed by the Legislature, by the 
majority of a single vote only, though the constituents of 
all who voted against it, should be in fact, as they are 
held to be in theory, opposed to its provisions, still is not 
the less operative as a law, and no right of self-govern- 
ment is thereby trampled upon. The clamour alluded to 
assumes that the States are separate and independent 
governments, and that laws enacted under the authority 
of all may be resisted and repealed at the pleasure of 
each. The people of the United States, so far as the 
powers of the General Government are concerned, are a 
unit, and laws passed by a majority of all are binding 
upon all. The laws and Constitution, however, which the 
South now resists, have been adopted by her sanction, 
and the right she now claims is that of a feeble minority 
to repeal what a majority has adopted. Nothing could 
be more fallacious. 

Civil war, under all circumstances, is a terrible 



ON THE PRESENT CRISIS. 29 

calamity, and yet, from the selfish ambition and wicked- 
ness of men, the best governments have not been able to 
escape it. In regarding that which has been forced upon 
the Government of the United States, Kentucky should 
not look so much at the means Avhich may be necessarily 
employed in its prosecution, as at the machinations by 
which this national tragedy has been brought upon us. 
When I look upon this bright land, a few^ months since so 
prosperous, so tranquil, and so free, and now behold it 
desolated by w^ar, and the firesides of its thirty millions 
of people darkened, and their bosoms wrung with anguish, 
and know, as I do, that all this is the work of a score or 
two of men, who, over all this national ruin and despair, 
are preparing to carve with the sword their way to seats 
of permanent power, I cannot but feel that they are 
accumulating upon their soil an amount of guilt hardly 
equalled in all the atrocities of treason and of homicide 
that have degraded the annals of our race from the 
foundations of the world. Kentucky may rest luell assured 
that this conflict^ tvhich is one of self-defence, will he pur- 
sued on the part of the Government in the paternal spirit 
in ivhich a father seeks to reclaim his erring offspring. 
No conquest, no effusion of blood is sought. In sorrow, 
not in anger, the prayer of all is, that the end may he 
reached tvithout loss of life or ivaste of property. Among 
the most powerful instrumentalities relied on for re-estab- 
lishing the authority of the Government, is that of the 
Union sentiment of the South, sustained by a liberated 
press. It is now trodden to the earth under a reign or 
terrorism which has no parallel but in the worst days of 
the French Revolution. The presence of the Govern- 
ed 



30 LETTER OF THE HON. J. HOLT 

ment will enable it to rebound and look its oppressors In 
the face. At present we are assured that in the seceded 
States no man expresses an opinion opposed to the revo- 
lution but at the hazard of his life and property. The 
only light which is admitted into political discussion is 
that which flashes from the sword or gleams from glisten- 
ing bayonets. A few days since, one of the United 
States Senators from Virginia published a manifesto, in 
which he announces, with oracular solemnity and severity, 
that all citizens who would not vote for secession, but 
were in favour of the Union — not, should, or ought to — 
but "must leave the State." These words have in them 
decidedly the crack of the overseer's whip. The Senator 
evidently treats Virginia as a great negro quarter, in 
which the lash is the appropriate emblem of authority, 
and the only argument he will condescend to use. How- 
ever the freemen of other parts of the State may abase 
themselves under the exercise of this insolent and pro- 
scriptive tyranny, should the Senator, with his scourge of 
slaves, endeavour to drive the people of Western Virginia 
from their homes, I will only say, in the language of the 
narrative of Gilpin's ride, 

"May I be there to see!" 

It would certainly prove a deeply interesting spectacle. 

It is true that before this deliverance of the popular 
mind of the South from the threatenings and alarm which 
have subdued it can be accomplished, the remorseless 
agitators who have made this revolution, and now hold its 
reins, must be discarded alike from the public confidence 
and the public service. The country in its agony is feel- 



ON THE PRESENT CRISIS. 31 

ing their power, and we well understand how difficult will 
^be the task of overthrowing the ascendancy they have 
secured. But the Union men of the South — believed to 
be in the majority in every seceded State, except, perhaps, 
South Carolina — aided by the presence of the Govern- 
ment, will be fully equal to the emergency. Let these 
agitators perish, politically, if need be, by scores, 

"A breath can unmake them as a breath has made;" 

but destroy this Republic, and 

"Where is that Promethean heat 
That can its light relume?" 

Once entombed, when will the Angel of the Resurrec- 
tion descend to the portals of its sepulchre ? There is 
not a voice which comes to us from the cemetery of nations 
that does not answer: "Never, never !" Amid the tor- 
ments of perturbed existence, we may have glimpses of 
rest and of freedom, as the maniac has glimpses of reason 
between the paroxysms of his madness, but we shall attain 
to neither national dignity nor national repose. We 
shall be a mass of jarring, warring, fragmentary States, 
enfeebled and demoralized, without power at home, or 
respectability abroad, and, like the republics of Mexico 
and South America, we will drift away on a shoreless and 
ensanguined sea of civil commotion, from which, if the 
teachings of history are to be trusted, we shall finally be 
rescued by the iron hand of some military wrecker, who 
will coin the shattered elements of our greatness and of 
our strength in a diadem and a throne. Said M. Fould, 
the great French statesman, to an American citizen, a 
few weeks since : " Your Republic is dead, and it is pro- 



32 LETTER OF THE HON. J. HOLT 

bably the last the Avorld will ever see. You will have a 
reign of terrorism, and after that two or three monarchies." 
All this may be verified, should this revolution succeed. 

Let us then twine each thread of the glorious tissue of 
our country's flag about our heart-strings, and looking 
upon our homes and catching the spirit that breathes upon 
us from the battle-fields of our fathers, let us resolve, 
that come weal or woe, we will in life and in death, now 
and for ever, stand by the Stars and the Stripes. They 
have floated over our cradles, let it be our prayer and our 
struggle that they shall float over our graves. They have 
been unfurled from the snows of Canada to the plains of 
New Orleans, and to the halls of the Montezumas, and 
amid the solitudes of every sea; and everywhere, as the 
luminous symbol of resistless and beneficent power, they 
have led the brave and the free to victory and to glory. 
It has been my fortune to look upon this flag in foreign 
lands and amid the gloom of an oriental despotism, and 
right well do I know, by contrast, how bright are its stars, 
and how sublime are its inspirations ! If this banner, 
the emblem for us of all that is grand in human history, 
and of all that is transporting in human hope, is to be 
sacrificed on the altars of a Satanic ambition, and thus 
disappear for ever amid the night and tempest of revolu- 
tion, then will I feel — and who shall estimate the desola- 
tion of that feeling ? — that the sun has indeed been 
stricken from the sky of our lives, and that henceforth we 
shall be but wanderers and outcasts, with nought but the 
bread of sorrow and of penury for our lips, and with 
hands ever outstretched in feebleness and supplication, on 
which, in any hour, a military tyrant may rivet the fet- 
ters of a despairing bondage. May God in his infinite 



ON THE PRESENT CRISIS. 33 

mercy save you and me, and the land we so much love, 
from the doom of such a degradation. 

No contest so momentous as this has arisen in human 
history, for, amid all the conflicts of men and of nations, 
the life of no such government as ours has ever been at 
stake. Our fathers won our Independence by the blood 
and sacrifices of a seven years' war, and w^e have main- 
tained it against the assaults of the greatest Power upon 
the earth ; and the question now is, whether we are to 
perish by our own hands, and have the epitaph of suicide 
written upon our tomb ? The ordeal through which we 
are passing must involve immense suffering and losses for 
us all, but the expenditure of not merely hundreds of mil- 
lions, but of billions of treasure, will be well made, if the 
result shall be the preservation of our institutions. 

Could my voice reach every dwelling in Kentucky, I 
would implore its inmates — if they would not have the 
rivers of their prosperity shrink away, as do unfed streams 
beneath the summer heats — to rouse themselves from their 
lethargy, and fly to the rescue of their country, before it 
is everlastingly too late. Man should appeal to man, and 
neighbourhood to neighbourhood, until the electric fires of 
patriotism shall flash from heart to heart in one unbroken 
current throughout the land. It is a time in which the 
work-shop, the office, the counting-house, and the field, 
may well be abandoned for the solemn duty that is upon 
us, for all these toils will but bring treasure, not for our- 
selves, but for the spoiler, if this revolution is not ar- 
rested. 

We are all, ivitli our every eartlihj interest, embarked in 
mid ocean on the same common deck. The hotul of the 
storm is in our ears, and ''''the lightning's red glare is 



34 LETTER OF THE HON. J. HOLT. 

painting hell on the shj ;'' and wliile the noble ship 2^ it dies 
and rolls under the lashings of the ivaves^ the cry is heard 
that she has sprung a leak at 7nany points^ and that the 
rushing ivaters are 7nounting rapidly in the hold. The 
man who., in such an hour., ivill 7iot tvork at the puynps^ is 
either a maniac or a monster. 

Sincerely yours, 

JOSEPH HOLT. 



LETTER FROM HON. EDWARD EVERETT. 



The following private letter was written, without any 
thought of publication, to a correspondent in Virginia. 

Boston, May 15, 1861. 

My Dear Mr. . 



Your letter of the 9th reached me yesterday. I 
read it with mingled feelings ; gratified that your friendly 
regard had as yet survived the shock of the times, and 
deeply grieved at the different view we take of the exist- 
ing crisis. 

It is well known to you that I sustained the South, at 
the almost total sacrifice of influence and favour at home, 
as long as I thought she was pursuing constitutional 
objects. This I did, although the South had placed the 
conservative North in a false and indefensible position, 
by the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and the perse- 
vering attempts to force slavery into the Territory of 
Kansas, by surprise, fraud and violence, against the 
known wish of an overwhelming majority of the people. 
I pursued this course for the sake of strengthening the 
hands of patriotic Union men at the South; altliougli I 
tvas well aware, partly from facts ivithin my personal 
knowledge, that leading Southern politicians had for 
thirty years been resolved to break up the Union, as soon 



3G LETTER OF IIOxN. EDWARD EVERETT 

as they ceased to control the United States Government^ 
and that the slavery question was but a pretext for keep- 
ing up agitation and rallying the South. 

Notwithstanding this state of things, and the wholly 
unwarrantable manner in which the policy of secession 
was initiated by South Carolina and followed up by the 
other cotton States, and in spite of the seizure of the 
public establishments and the public property — which, 
in the absence of any joint act of partition, was sheer 
plunder — it was my opinion that, if they would abstain 
from further aggression, and were determined to separate, 
we had better part in peace. But the wanton attack on 
Fort Sumter (which took place, not from any military 
necessity, for what harm was a single company, cooped 
up in Charleston harbour, able to do to South Carolina? 
but for the avowed purpose of ^'stirring the blood" of 
the South, and thus bringing in the border States), and 
the subsequent proceedings at Montgomery, have wholly 
changed the state of affairs. The South has levied an 
unprovoked war against the Government of the United 
States, the mildest and most beneficent in the world, and 
has made it the duty of every good citizen to rally to its 
support. 

I perceive that my having publicly expressed that 
sentiment, and contributed my mite toward the regiment 
of Mr. Webster (who inherits the conservative opinions 
of his illustrious father), has caused surprise on the part 
of some of my Southern friends — yourself among the most 
valued of them — as if my so doing was inconsistent with 
the friendly feelings I have ever cherished toward the 
South. But these friends forget that as early as the 



ON THE PRESENT CRISIS. 37 

12th of April, that is, before the proclamation of Presi- 
dent Lincoln, the Secretary of War at Montgomery had 
threatened that by the 1st of May, the Confederate flag 
should float over the Capitol at Washington, and in due 
time our Faneuil Hall. When General Beauregard pro- 
ceeds to execute this threat, his red-hot cannon balls and 
shells will not spare the roof that shelters my daughter 
and four little children at Washington, nor my own roof 
in Boston. Must I, because I have been the steady friend 
of the South, sit still while he is battering my house about 
my ears? 

I certainly deprecated the choice of a President exclu- 
sively by the electoral vote of one section of the country, 
though consenting with the greatest reluctance to be 
myself upon one of the opposing tickets. It was, how- 
ever, fully in the power of the South to have produced a 
different result. But the disunioiiists were determined 
to have their own candidate^ though mistaken^ I trust, in^ 
the belief that he shared their disloyal views. 1 make 
this charge against them without scruple, justified hy 
subsequent events, as well as by the language of the 
entire Union press at the South during the canvass. 

After the election was decided, the disunionists would 
not wait for ovei^t acts, because they knew none could or 
would be committed. They knew that there was an anti- 
Eepublican majority in the Senate, and that there would 
be one in the present House. They ''^precipitated'' the 
rupture of the Union, because they knew that if they 
ivaited, even the pretext for it would fail. 

After the cotton States had seceded, and although that 
circumstance greatly increased the difficulty of corapro- 

D 



38 LETTER OF HON. EDWARD EVERETT 

mise, measures were nevertheless adopted or proposed in 
Congress, which must have removed all sincere alarm on 
the part of the South, that their Constitutional rights 
were threatened. The accredited leaders of the Repub- 
lican party, including the President elect, uniformly 
pledged themselves to that effect. The two Houses by a 
constitutional majority pledged them in like manner 
against any future amendment of the Constitution vio- 
lating the rights of the South. A member from Massa- 
chusetts, (Mr. Adams,) possessing the entire confidence 
of the incoming Administration, proposed to admit New 
Mexico as a State, and three new Territories were organ- 
ized without any anti-slavery restriction. While this was 
done in Congress, the States repealed or modified the 
laws throwing obstacles in the way of recovering fugitive 
slaves — laws which have never been of any practical 
injury to the cotton States. These conciliatory demon- 
strations had no effect in staying the progress of 
secession, because the leaders of that revolution were 
determined not to he satisfied, and to maintain their 
policy, which, in the light of the Constitution, is simple 
rebellion and treason, they have appealed to the sword. 

You say that the South desires nothing but peace, and 
ask whether the North will not "let you alone." But, 
my good friend, the South demands a great deal more 
than "peace." She claims the capital of the country, 
although she has but a third of its population. She 
claims the control of the outlet of Chesapeake Bay and 
its tributaries; the right to command the most direct 
route (the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad) to the Atlantic 
from Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois — States whose popu- 



ON THE PRESENT CRISIS. 



39 



lation amounts to five and a half millions; tlie right to 
dragoon the State of Maryland and the Western part of 
your own State, with Kentucky, Missouri, and Tennessee, 
into joining the Southern Confederacy; the right to 
occupy the fortresses which protect the trade of the Gulf 
of Mexico ; the right to shut up the outlet of the Ohio, 
Mississippi, and the Missouri; and, finally, she claims 
the right for any State, that chooses to pass a law to that 
effect, to break up the Union. In enforcing these uncon- 
stitutional, monstrous, and unheard of usurpations, she 
asks to be "let alone;" and when the Government of the 
United States, in obedience to the solemn oaths of its 
members, (from which the leaders of the revolt dispense 
themselves,) takes measures to defend itself, the capital 
of the Union, the public establishments and the rights of 
the whole people against this invasion, long premeditated 
by ambitious and disappointed politicians, (for Mr. A. H. 
Stephens truly declares that to be "the source of a great 
part of our troubles,") she exclaims that the North seeks 
to "subjugate the South." 

I cannot describe to you, my dear friend, the sorrow 
caused me by this state of things. Circumstances, as 
you well knew, had led me to form personal friendly 
relations at the South, more extensively than most North- 
ern men, and the support given, especially in the Border 
States, to the ticket on which my name was borne at the 
late election, filled me with gratitude. If the sacrifice of 
all I have, could have averted the present disastrous 
struggle, I could have made it willingly, joyously. But 
I pray you, believe me that I speak not only my own con- 
viction, but that of the entire North, when I say that we 



40 LETTER OF THE HON. EDWARD EVERETT. 

feel that the conflict has been forced upon us, to gratify 
the aspirations of ambitious men ; that it is our duty to 
ourselves, to our children, and to the whole people, to 
sustain the Government; and that it is, if possible, more 
the interest of the South than of the North, that this 
attempt to break up the Union should fail. 

I remain, my dear Mr. , 

Sorrowfully and sincerely yours, 

EDWARD EVERETT. 



LETTER FROM COMMODORE STEWART. 



BoRDENTowN, May, 4, 18G1. 

My Dear Sir : 

Agreeably to your request I now furnish you with 
the reminiscences of a conversation which passed between 
Mr. John C. Calhoun and myself, in the latter part of 
December, 1812, after the declaration of war by the 
Congress of the United States against Great Britain, on 
the 18th of June previous. 

On the assembling of Congress, in the early part of 
December, I found that an important portion of the lead- 
ing Democratic members of Congress had taken up their 
quarters at Mrs. Bushby's boarding-house; amongst whom 
was Mr. Calhoun — a new member from South Carolina — 
and I believe this was his first appearance in the House 
of Representatives. In consequence of this I took Lieu- 
tenant Ridgley, my confidential officer and the first Lieu- 
tenant of the frigate Constellation, of which vessel I then 
held the command, and was preparing for sea at the 
Washington navy yard — left our lodgings at Strothers' 
and obtained board at Mrs. Bushby's with them. Ridgley 
was a witty and able talker, who could aid me in demon- 
strating the necessity for, and the high policy of, a for- 
midable naval force, wherewith to carry on the war with 



42 LETTER or COMMODORE STEWART 

England, which I considered could only be done with 
effect through her being victoriously struck at on an ele- 
ment over which she deemed herself sole mistress. This 
appeared to me to constitute her most tender point. 

By this movement I found myself judiciously located 
to enable me to urge upon Congress any patriotic measures 
which seemed best calculated to meet and discomfit the 
self-sufficiency and arrogance of our oppressive enemy. 

Mr. Calhoun's age, I thought, approximated my own, 
which was then thirty-four, and he being a man of the 
highest order of talent, and representing a State in our 
Union which scarce ever permitted themselves to be repre- 
sented by inferior ability in the national councils, I could 
not have commenced my object with one more fitted for 
the purpose I had in view. He was also a high-minded 
and honourable man, kind and friendly, as well as open 
and confiding to those he deemed worthy. We soon 
formed an intimacy, and I frequently had long conversa- 
tions with him on the war, the subjects relating thereto, 
and matters growing out of its existence — the navy being 
the most prominent — the gunboats, the merchants, bonds, 
then on the tapis in Congress, and others of political or 
minor interest. One evening I struck on the divided 
views of our sectional interests — of the war — stated to 
him that the opposite feelings on this subject had puzzled 
me exceedingly, and asked him how it was that the plant- 
ing States were so strongly and so decidedly in favour of 
the war, while the commercial States were so much op- 
posed to it ? With this latter section of our country it 
seemed to me that the punishment of England, through 
the medium of war, ought to meet their highest approba- 
tion, and call for their greatest efforts, as they were the 



ON THE niESENT CRISIS. 43 

greatest sufferers through her instrumentality and power 
over our commercial affairs since 1792, which were so 
arrogantly urged by plunder and impressment on the 
highway of. nations, while the Southern portion of the 
Union had felt but little in comparison. I observed with 
great simplicity: "You in the South and Southwest are 
decidedly the aristocratic portion of this Union; you are 
so in holding persons in perpetuity in slavery ; you are so 
in every domestic quality ; so in every habit of your lives, 
living and actions ; so in habits, customs, intercourse and 
manners; you neither work with your hands, head, nor 
any machinery, but live and have your living not in accord- 
ance with the will of your Creator, but by the sweat of 
slavery, and yet you assume all the attributes, professions 
and advantages of Democracy." Mr. Calhoun replied : 
"I see you speak through the head of a young statesman, 
and from the heart of a patriot, but you lose sight of the 
politician and the sectional policy of the people. I admit 
your conclusions in respect to us Southrons; that we are 
essentially aristocratic, I cannot deny, but we can and do 
yield much to Democracy. This is our sectional policy ; 
we are from necessity throw^n upon, and solemnly wedded 
to, that party, however it may occasionally clash with our 
feelings, for the conservator of our interests. It is 
through our affiliation with that party in the Middle and 
Western States we control, under the Constitution, the 
governing of these United States ; but when we cease thus 
to control this nation through a disjointed Democracy, or 
any material obstacle in that party which shall tend to 
throw us out of that rule and control, we shall then resort 
to the dissolution of the Union. The compromises in the 
Constitution, under the then circumstances, w^ere sufficient 



44 LETTER OF COINIMODORE STEWART 

for our fathers, but under the altered condition of our 
country from that period, leave to the South no resource 
but dissolution; for no amendments to the Constitution 
could be reached through a Convention of thQ people and 
their three-fourths rule." I laughed incredulously, and 
said: ''Well, Mr. Calhoun, ere such can take place you 
and I will have been so long non est that we can now 
laugh at its possibility, and leave it with complacency to 
our children's children, who will then have the watch on 
deck." 

Alas ! my dear sir, how entirely were the views of that 
"young headed statesman" circumscribed by the patriotic 
feelings of his heart. What he then thought an impossi- 
bility for human hands to effect, for ages on ages to come, 
he now sees verified to the letter, as predicted by that far- 
seeing statesman, John C. Calhoun. Even this noble 
Republic is disrupted, its Constitution rent into shreds and 
tatters by party follies and the wickedness of its people's 
selfishness. Had they but inherited a moiety of the vir- 
tues of their fathers, who bled and impoverished them- 
selves through a long and bloody war to establish the 
independence and liberty, welfare and happiness of their 
posterity for all time to come ; had they worshipped the 
true and living God, instead of the "almighty dollar," 
they would not now have beheld the millions of patriots 
arming for the strife, against traitors to their country, to 
the Constitution and the laws, once more to baptize in 
blood, for liberty's sake, the blessings which rational 
liberty accords under our Union. . Had a prophet arisen 
in 1812, and predicted as John C. Calhoun did, nothing 
short of Divine inspiration could have given credence to 
his foreshadowincrs. Alas 1 I have lived to see its accom- 



ON THE PKSSENT CRISIS. 45 

plishment. He has gone to the tomb of his fathers, the 
pride of his section, honoured for his talents and for his 
efforts in council, while your humble servant still lingers 
on the brink, under the national anathema of degradation 
— as a reward for many years of faithful services — which 
degradation was accorded him simultaneously with his 
reaching the head of the service to which his whole life 
had been devoted. You will see, my dear sir, I have no 
disposition to "bury my light under a bushel," but will 
ever be ready to accord justice w^hen justice is due. Thus 
in death we show the ruling passion stronger than in life; 
and as it is ^\iih individuals so it is with nations, the 
blackest spot found in the heart is ingratitude. 
Accept my assurances of regard and respect. 

CHARLES STEWART. 
Geo. W. Childs, Esq., Philad. 



PAMPHLETS ON THE CRISIS. 

The Causes of the American Civil "War. A Letter to 
the London Tunm. By John Lothrop Motley, LL.D., 
author of "The Rise of the Dutch Republic." Price 10 cts. 
Per dozen §1.00. 

Letters of the Hon. Joseph Holt, the Hon. Edward 
Everett, and Commodore Charles Stewart, on the 
Present Crisis. Price 15 cts., or eight copies for $1.00. 

The Scripture Doctrine of Civil Government applied 
to the Present Crisis. A Discourse delivered in the 
Westminster Presbyterian Church. By the Rev. Robert 
Watts. Price 10 cts. Per dozen $1.00. 

American Patriotism. A Sermon. By the Rev. Charles 
AVadsworth^ D.D. Price 15 cts. 

The Christian Soldier. A Sermon. By the Rev. Charles 
Wadsworthj D.D. Price 15 cts. 

The State of the Country. Reprinted from the Princeton 
RevieiD. By Rev. Charles Hodge, D. D. Price 6 cts. 

A second Article from the Princeton Revieiv. By Rev. Dr. 
Hodge. Price 75 cts. 

Our Country; its Perils and its Deliverance. By Rev. 
Robt. J. Breckinridge, D.D. Price 15 cts., or eight copies 
for $1.00. 

Danville Quarterly Revieav for June. Containing a 
Second Article from Rev. Dr. Robert J. Breckinridge on 
the Crisis. Price 75 cts. 

The Rebellion Record; a Diary of the Southern Conspiracy 
and War against the United States. To be published 
monthly. Part I. With a portrait of Gen. Scott and a fine 
Map. Price 50 cts. 

Part II. Rebellion Record. Containing Portraits of Fre- 
mont, Ellsworth^ and Jeff. Davis. Price 50 cts. 

Any of the above sent by mail, post-paid, on receipt of the 
price. 

For sale by 

WILLIAM S. & ALFRED MARTIEN, 
GOG Chestnut Street^ Philadelphia. 



MAPS OF THE SEAT OF WAR. 

I. 

000 Miles Around the City of Wasihington, showing the 
Seat of War in the East, with list of Forts, Military Stations, 
Table of Population, Areas, etc , and an enlarged Military 
Map of the country between New York, Washington, and 
Wheeling — the scene of the present active military operations. 

One large sheet, 33 by 23 inches. Price, in sheets^ coloured, 
25 cts.; in neat pocket cases, 38 cts. 

11. 

«>00 Miles arowid Cairo, showing the iSeat of War in the 
West, with list of Forts and Military Stations, Distances on 
Rivers to and from Cairo, etc., and a detailed Map of the Ohio 
and Mississippi rivers, showing every steamboat landing. 

One large sheet, 33 by 23 inches. Price, in sheets, coloured, 
25 cts. ; in neat pocket cases, 38 cts. 

These sheets are the largest and cheapest, the most reliable 
in information and beautiful in execution, that have yet been 
issued, and are prepared on an entirely novel plan. 

III. 

3/c/p of the United States and Territories east of the Ptocky 
Mountains, showing the Military Posts, Ports of Entry, &c. 
With an enlarged View of the Seat of War, the Coast of South 
Carolina, and of Fort Pickens, and the Shores of the Gulf of 
Mexico. Price, coloured, 50 cts. 

lY. 

Bird's-Fi/e Yieio of Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, and the 
District of Columbia. Size, 30 by 36 inches. Price, $1 00. 

This is a most carefully and beautifully prepared Map, con- 
veying, at a glance, a correct and comprehensive view of all the 
leading points of interest, blockading fleets, &c. 

For sale by 

WILLIAM S. & ALFRED MARTIEN, 
GOG Chestnut Street, Philadelphia. 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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